PASSINGS: Murray Lender, Samuel Glazer

Murray Lender, 81, who helped turn his father's small Connecticut bakery into a national company credited with introducing bagels to many Americans, died Wednesday at a Miami hospital of complications from a fall several weeks ago, said his wife, Gillie Lender.

Lender's father, Harry, immigrated to the United States from Lublin, Poland, in 1927 and opened what would become Lender's Bagels that year in an 800-square-foot bakery in New Haven, Conn.

Murray Lender was born in 1930, and four years later Harry Lender bought a larger bakery as the business prospered. Murray and his brothers all went on to work for the family business.

The Lenders began selling bagels in packages to supermarkets in 1955. In 1960, two years after Harry Lender died, the Lenders started freezing their bagels and shipping them across the country.

Murray served as the company's chief executive and was known for promoting Lender's Bagels in TV commercials. He also became chairman of the National Frozen Food Assn.

The family sold the bagel business to Kraft Foods in 1984. Pinnacle Foods Group has owned Lender's Bagels since 2003.

Samuel Glazer

Co-owner of firm that made Mr. Coffee coffeemakers

Samuel Glazer, 89, co-owner of the company that revolutionized American mornings with the Mr. Coffee drip coffee maker, died March 12 at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland of complications of leukemia.

Glazer and his North American Systems business partner, Vincent Marotta Sr., hired engineers to develop an automatic drip coffee maker for use at home. The company introduced the Mr. Coffee coffee maker in 1972 to compete with percolator and instant coffee methods.

Mr. Coffee became a huge success. A corporate online history says that within three years Mr. Coffee was the top-selling coffee maker in the U.S. The brand also got a big boost from its longtime pitchman, New York Yankees slugger Joe DiMaggio.

The partners sold North American Systems in 1987 for $182 million.

Glazer was born in Cleveland in 1923 and served in the Army during World War II. Over the years, he was involved in many business ventures, including developing shopping malls and housing.